You know I'm mugging real hard when I'm blogging expired posts like these which unfolded around 4 months ago in the history of my life...HAHA!
Yeash we left for Tioman in the wee hours of the morning on 29th July 2012. We're supposed to meet at the bus stop opposite Far East plaza at 5am!! Cabbing was like the only way...haha.
I reached on time, as usual...HAHA! They were all there already...not because they're all early birds but because they stayed over at Orchard! HAHA! So I joined them and after trying to chat (because some of 'em were too tired) we decided to play ice-breaker games to keep us awake while waiting for our coach to come...haha
Yup, here's an Instagram shot of all of us, courtesy of our outgoing PumpfestXV SPO - Priscilla Tan a.k.a PrisTheHeroFishballs....HAHAHA!
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| Pumpfest XV waiting for our coach to send us to Malaysia! :) |
There was nothing much to talk about on the coach ride because everyone knocked out upon physical contact with the comfy, well-cushioned seats coupled with the soothing blow of the air-con...zZZzzZZ was the next thing that happened...LOL!
We all awoke at our first pit stop for breakfast! The food wasn't too bad and the price was just tiny-lil-bit cheaper than Singapore...haha! Take for example the picture below:
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| Chor Seng & I with our wanton mee :D |
If you're wondering why am I doing a "5" sign on my left hand, I was actually telling you that the wanton mee costs 5RM!! Yes, still cheaper than Singapore but by like 50cents? HAHA!
Nevertheless, it was a good meal. I don't even know what the stopover place is called...haha! But it sells wanton me, nasi lemak, chap chye peng and all...much like a Singapore hawker centre.
Now that we're more alive, we decided to take a few pictures on the coach...haha...Here's one of me with Teck Kian & Kai Sen (in shades)..haha
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| Me, Teck Kian & Kai Sen :D |
Our bus journey continued this time with much more chattering and laughing and before we knew it, we arrived at the ferry terminal.
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| Ching Yee & I posing at the map of Tioman at the ferry terminal :D |
Our tour guide told us he didn't bring us to Mersing ferry terminal because it was usually too congested and waiting time was kinda cui...So here we are at the ferry terminal at Tanjung Gemok :D
I was telling them that Tanjung Gemok is Chor Seng's territory...because "gemok" means fat in Malay...HAHAHA! Below's a picture of me with my gemok friend :D :D HAHAHAHA!
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| Gemok & I :D LOL! At Tanjung Gemok's ferry terminal! :) |
While waiting for our turn to board, we were looking at the swampy shore of the ferry terminal and saw TONS of CRABS!!! You must be thinking...crabs...so what's the big deal?
The interesting about the crabs are...some of them only have 1 BIG claw and the other claw was totally tiny! Teck Kian then remarked "The crabs are like the Left 4 Dead 2 charger...one hand big one hand small"...LOL! What an apt description.
Apart from looking at those L4D crabs, we also took a picture of us with our ferry tickets! LOL! Yeah, so kiddy, IKR...LOL!
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| PumpfestXV with our ferry tickets! :D |
Oh, in case you didn't notice...I was slinging my guitar on my right shoulder...yeashh...I brought my guitar! HAHA! After FOOT, the guitar is like a package deal for me...Jonavan = guitar + sing song. LOL!
And pardon the weird lighting of the photo above...it was over-exposed so I under-exposed it (digitally) and...yup...LOL! Still better than looking at an over-exposed photo though...haha...at least you can recognize who's who in the picture after editing...LOL! Another under-exposed photo of us in the ferry! :D
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| Kai Sen, Ching Yee & Me! :D In the ferry :D |
The ferry ride took quite longgg...but as usual, to ease the boredom and keep us all in the "fun" spirit of things, we played ICE-BREAKERS!! HAHAHAHA! I think those that wanted to sleep in the ferry are silently cursing and swearing at us...LOL!
The thing about the ferry ride is...it'll stop at different islands...so if we alighted at the wrong stop...backside tear...we'll have to wait for the next ferry and re-travel...Haha...You must be wondering which island then did we go to?
Our destination? PAYA BEACH RESORT! :D Yup, our stop was Paya Beach! So when the ferry stopped, we had to wait for the crew to announce by shouting the stop's name...THIS IS THE BEST PART of the ferry journey...
When we reached our jetty...the crew shouted "FIRE!! FIREE!! FIREE!!" and we were like "HUH?! FIREE?! GOT SO SUAY BOH?!"
However, we realized no one was panicking...after a bit of discussion and more intent listening, we realized he was shouting "PAYA! PAYA!" Ok, to us, Paya is pronounced PIE-YA. But that Malay guy was shouting "PIE-YER!!" which, after decoding through our English brain, sounded like "FIRE"...HAHAHA!
After that wonderful discovery, we all rushed to grab our bags to leave the boat :D LOL! So we now know that our MRT station is pronounced "PIE-YER LEBAR" in malay not Paya Lebar...HAHAHA!
Ok, pronunciation aside...THE ISLAND WAS PRISTINELY PRETTY! Here's a group photo of us at the "welcome" board :D
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| All of us at the "Welcome to Paya Beach Resort" sign :D |
Being the narcissistic cam-whores we all are, every reflective surface was an opportunity to capture our beauty...HAHA!
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| Self-group-portrait...haha! |
After quite some time of waiting, we were given our room keys and we all left to see our rooms :D We split into 2 BIG rooms. The picture below is my room, shared with Kai Sen, Chor Seng, Wei Hong & Teck Kian :D It was a conjoined room.
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| All of us posing at the guys room...haha |
Yup, after choosing and unpacking our stuffs in the room, we left for lunch :D The most "fantastic" thing about our trip is we went during their fasting month -.-" This means all the roadside food and outside foodstalls were closed...and this means we'll have to eat at the hotel's EXPENSIVE RESTAURANT -.-" haha.
Oh well, what to do? Haha...ok it ain't that expensive la...but same as Singapore zi-char price lo. Haha, anyway, it's the company that truly matters :D So here's a smiley pic of us with our not-so-smiley-food..haha!
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| Me, Tee Li, Jia Yi, Shimin, Joyce and Kai Sen :) I was preventing Chor Seng's hands from stealing our food...HAHAHA! |
So the not-so-fantastic part is that we have to pay for our lunches which were not part of the package...but the WOW-FANTASTIC-BABY part is that dinner is PROVIDED - BUFFET STYLE! :D HAHAHA! So this is the time for us to eat to our belly's content to "补回" what we lost during our paid lunch...HAHAHA!
And 补回 we did...especially Chor Seng & I...HAHAHA! Spammed all the meat we could handle...or should I say couldn't handle...LOL! So here's a picture of us in "补回" mode...HAHAHA!
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| All of us in "补回" mode :D LOL! |
Ok, enough with the food...anyway, that's all the pictures we took at the restaurant I think...haha! On with the itinerary :D
Our first stop wasn't all too exciting...we didn't dive straight into the water and start snorkelling...haha...We visited some marine eco-tourism building there.
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| Posing at the marine eco-tourist attraction |
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| Another shot outside that place...haha |
Inside was fully air-conditioned and comfy :D Inside they showcased all kinds of marine life species and all...they even had computer screens for you to like look through the marine life...BUT, the computers were ALL NOT WORKING. WOW! *claps hands* HAHA!
It shows that they have that "many" people going there...thus they need not maintain the working condition of the computers...haha!
Inside there, they have a cosy lil' kids corner! There's like a mini-pond or touch pool that is SUPPOSED to be filled with fishes and tortoises for the children to touch them and all...anyway, guess what we did there?
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| ARM WRESTLING GUI RU! LOL LOL! :D |
Yup, we played arm wrestling...of all things...LOL! So the strongest girl got to challenge the weakest guy...HAHAHA! And of course, without dropping a micro-sized particle of sweat, Gui Ru's hand dropped to the table...LOL!
Ok, that was not before mine dropped in utter defeat to the sheer weight of Chor Seng's hand evidenced in the picture below...HAHAHA!
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| Me arm-wrestling Chor Seng :D |
We caused quite a ruckus there with our laughter, arm-wrestling squeals and all...So before we got chased out, we decided to leave...HAHA! Here's a group picture of us there :)
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| All of us at the entrance or exit of the marine eco-tourist building :D |
Yup, NOW's the REAL THING...we got suited up in our life jackets and marched toward the jetty in expectation of a great snorkelling trip :D
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| Kai Sen, Chor Seng, Wei Hong & I :) |
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| All of us ODAC posing at the jetty :D |
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| Yes we can't get enough of the jetty...LOL! |
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| Looks like we're never gonna leave the jetty at this picture-taking rate...HAHAHA! |
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| ONE LAST GROUP PHOTO at the jetty! :) |
FINALLY, we left the jetty and we're IN THE BOAT! LOL! Here's another set of spammed pictures in the boat! LOL!
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| Me, Pris, Jia Yi & Gui Ru :D |
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| All of us in the boat :D |
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| Shi Min, Me & Pris :D |
Yup, those were the boat pictures...haha. We weren't on the boat the whole time actually...we went up and down the boat many, many times because we snorkeled in many different places :D
Anyway, we snorkeled on 2 different days. All these pictures taken are over the span of 2 days :) The first destination the boat dropped us off to snorkel is at some island...Duh..HAHA! I forgot the name of all the islands...LOL! And they didn't tell us either...haha.
If you're really interested to know the islands' names, you can refer to the picture I took with Ching Yee with the map of Tioman in the background at the ferry terminal :D Google those names and you're on your way :D
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| Kai Sen & I :D One in Air-force PT kit and the other in infantry PT kit :D HAHAHA! |
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| Posing for the camera...Doncha just love the splash of the waves at my legs? The effect captured on camera is soooo cool :D |
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| From left: Jia Yi, Ching Yee with her rage face...HAHA!, Tee Li, Meimei, Wei Hong, Kai Sen, Pris, ME :D and Teck Kian :) |
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| Me with my jump shot cum ODAC pose! :D Awesome shot right? I know...LOL! :D |
We ended our voyage at this snorkeling site with a group photo with "Pumpfest XV" engraved in the sand! :D Ok, it's not too clear but if you squint your eyes, you'll see that "Pumpfest XV" is on the ground in front of us...haha!
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| Pumpfest XV! :) |
We left the first snorkeling site pretty quickly because there were TONS OF SUPER SMALL
JELLYFISH!! HAHA! We kept feeling the sting but we can't see the jelly!
We were all randomly going "AHHH!", "AIYAHHH!", "WHOAAA!", etc...haha! I had several stings with the worst one near my groin area -.-" LOL!
The stings weren't potent though because we were all perfectly fine. It was only acute pain and a lil' sore feeling at that spot thereafter...apart from that, not much side-effects or whatsoever. Thank God! If not we'd have wasted our money renting the snorkeling gear. HAHA!
Most of the diving spots we went to (4 I think) also had the same amount of jellies I guess. Because we were all randomly stung. Haha. So for those who wanna go snorkeling and really can't take pain, do wear like proper swim attire...long sleeve and long pants swim attire. We are all like in singlets and shorts...HAHA!
Yup, enough of the jellyfish...LOL! Here's a few nice pictures of us snorkeling :D We spammed a lot but few are nice...and these are a select few with identifiable faces...HAHA! Because when we put on the goggles, we can't really differentiate who is who...LOL!
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| Teck Kian, Me, Ching Yee, Wei Hong & Joyce :D |
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| Me & Priscilla :D I remember this rare, successful self-portrait attempt...HAHA! |
The waters in Tioman are really clear and you can see the seabed. Our snorkeling sites are not that deep...I think the deepest is a depth of 5-6metres?
Some snorkeling sites they dropped us at were teeming with fishes like the one shown below. I just randomly whooped out the camera and took a photo of them :)
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| FISHES!! TONS OF 'EM!! |
Some snorkeling sites were more empty and nothing much to look at. There was one site they dropped us where the waves were HUGE. We had to swim against those giant waves and it really took a lot of stamina. Thank God my parents sent me to swimming lessons when young. HAHA! I got a silver swimming cert by the way. LOL!
Some of them couldn't beat the waves...so we signalled for the boat to drive toward us instead of us swimming to it. HAHA!
I remember at the part Chor Seng swim until leg cramp and he thought he was going to die or something...That's when he called out for his bestest buddy...He crooned in a rather hapless tone "Kai Sen..." HAHAHAHA!
We all helped him to get onto the boat...and if I remember correctly, Kai Sen wasn't one of them..HAHAHAHA! LOL LOL!
We also snorkeled near our hotel room and I managed to snap a good picture of the fishes crowding round what looked like a giant undersea "pomelo". Haha! They were feeding off that "pomelo" I think...that's when I snapped a photo of them :D
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| FISHES!!! :) Feeding off the undersea "pomelo" |
Yup, I think those 2 pictures are the best shots of the marine life over there. Haha! I know right, 2 pictures only. But we were more interested in the snorkeling experience rather than photographing the marine life over there. Haha!
Anyway if you were wondering "how did you guys take pictures underwater? You all bought an underwater camera for the trip ah?" Fret not, there are underwater cameras for loan at Tioman :) At least they're available near Paya Beach Resort.
It's not too expensive and they provide services like saving the photos into a DVD-rom for you and they'll charge the camera's battery for you and all. Yup, we didn't have to spend a hefty sum to capture our underwater moments.
We also played a lot at the floating pontoons over there. They had several pontoons all over the place and we kept playing around there...haha! There were also a lot of fishes at the pontoon area...I think they were using it to hide from the sun...haha.
You must be thinking "What's so interesting about a pontoon?? What can you do on it?" Well, here's a few snapshots of what we did...haha!
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| My all-star JUMP SHOT! :) LOL! |
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| Pontoon jump shot! :) |
Oh I must mention...in the picture above there are 2 funny elements...haha! The first is Chor Seng having a bit of a problem with his jump shot...LOL LOL!
To the extreme right of the photo is the 2nd funny element. What is Wei Hong doing? Peeing? LOL LOL LOL!! Haha! Anyway, here's a better group photo :D
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| Pontoon shot! :) |
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| Act cool shot :D |
If you're wondering who our photographers are, they are 妹妹 (Shi Min) and Jia Yi who are too tired to swim to the pontoon...Haha! So the boat docked beside it and they helped to take picture of us! :) Thanks for your services! :D HAHA!
On the 2nd day, we also snorkeled our way to another pontoon. Haha. This time, this pontoon was a lil' more atas...it had seats and a little netting acting as a shelter and giving it a romantic feel...haha! Somewhat. LOL!
Before snorkeling our way to the "atas" pontoon, which was probably about 1km away from the shore, we already saw huge storm clouds looming not too far from the horizon.
We actually hesitated exploring this pontoon because if we reached there and the storm clouds REACHED THERE TOO, going back to shore would be a daunting, if not fatal task.
We then discussed with the rest and our safety officer, Teck Kian :D HAHA! Joyce was like "I think we shouldn't go la...", Teck Kian was "Sure boh, not all of them are strong swimmers leh, maybe I go get a kayak while you all go." I was like "GO LA! No need kayak la, we all can make it one la!"
HAHAHA! Finally, we listened to our safety officer. HAHA! We get to explore that pontoon and at the same time, we had a little "insurance" to kayak us back should anything go wrong. Haha!
Yup, while all of us snorkeled our way to the "atas" pontoon, Teck Kian went to rent a kayak. Safety officer indeed. :) Haha! So here's a few shots at the "atas" pontoon :D
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| Chor Seng, Ching Yee, Me, Tee Li, Joyce and Gui Ru right in front! LOL! |
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| Me & Gui Ru :D |
Pardon the super bright photo above...I had to brighten it that much so that our faces can be seen...haha! That's what happens when your background is blindingly bright. Haha.
While we were still playing on the "atas" pontoon, jumping off and climbing on, etc..When we finally realized how near the storm clouds were, we could already see the raindrops ferociously pelting down onto the surface of the sea about a few hundred metres away and the waves were getting frighteningly choppy.
Upon that realization, we all began making our way back to shore...The bad news is, the clouds WERE FASTER THAN OUR SWIMMING! HAHAHAHA! We were only like halfway back to shore when the rain hit us.
The waves were also more commanding, telling us where it wants us to go while we struggled against it to get to shore. Teck Kian was right behind us in his kayak, ready to pick any of us up should we falter.
In the end, WE ALL MADE IT! :D with the wind and rain viciously slamming against us, wanting to pull us back to its aquatic domain.
Here's the best part, while everyone ran back to seek shelter in their rooms, I spotted Teck Kian, alone bringing the kayak back to the store he rented it from. Being a responsible and helpful sergeant, I instinctively went to help my safety officer...HAHAHAHAHA! LOL LOL!
Sound so great eh? LOL! BUT, CARRYING THE KAYAK BACK TO THE STORE WAS HELL!! The store was super far away...like 1.5km away from our rooms? So Teck Kian and I carried the kayak and ran along the shore all the way to the store.
Whoa, it felt like my army training days where we had to evacuate someone on the stretcher man...TOTALLY FELT LIKE. HAHA! The kayak really is that heavy out of water! HAHA!
Yup, the kayak was duly returned, we ran back to our rooms and prepared for another round of BUFFET DINNER! :D HAHA!
OH I ALMOST FORGOT! During the snorkeling, I sustained quite a bad injury thanks to our dear SPO Priscilla Tan Yi Ling. HAHAHAHA!
She was like swimming past me with her breaststroke style and suddenly *BOOM*. I felt a huge blow to my toe. I thought my toe broke off! HAHAHAHA! It was THAT PAINFUL! What followed after is a huge blue-black or "orh-chair" at my poor, mangled little toe. HAHA! See my 3rd toe below is reddened? HAHA!
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| My injured toe :( Thanks to Pris' awesome swim strokes...HAHA! |
Another highlight of this trip is our consumption of ice-cream. LOL! Yes, the magnum there is 50% cheaper than Singapore! It costs $3+ in Singapore. It also costs 3+ in Tioman...RM3+ LOL! So we sorta spammed ice-cream. HAHA!
Here's the nice, cosy, air-conditioned souvenir shop by which we get our daily fix of magnum ice-cream from. LOL!
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| Handsome me posing for the camera in the shop...HAHA! |
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| Ice-creaming outside the shop...HAHA! |
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| Still ice-creaming outside the shop...LOL! |
Our ice-cream fetish was soooo bad that even during our snorkeling trip we whack ice-cream! HAHA! We had a lunch break pit-stop at some island again...and when we saw the ice-cream booth, we immediately flocked there like scavengers around a dead corpse. HAHA!
Here's a few pictures of us at the pit-stop island where we had lunch. Oh, yes they provided lunch. It was part of the snorkeling package I guess. We had packet fried rice with a chicken wing :D Not too bad :) Just that some packets the fried rice smelt spoilt...haha!
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| Me, Pris & Kai Sen :D |
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| Tee Li, Jia Yi & I ice-creaming right after lunch...haha! |
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| Ice-cream cravers UNITE! LOL! |
Yup, those were our snorkeling moments over a span of 2 days. Really had fun! Love snokeling! I love adoring the beauty of marine life.
It gives you a sort of a sense of wonder, a sense of awe and marvel. My reaction when I see the corals swaying and fishes swimming is simply "WOW, BEAUTIFUL". That's the innate reaction to God-designed beauty :)
So after a tiring day of snorkeling we decided to wind down at night at the bar...yup, they had a seaside bar there :D
And I brought my guitar down too...haha. Because we're gonna like sing songs and play games in one of the bigger rooms later :D
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| Me with my guitar :D At the beach...haha |
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| Posing with our ordered cocktails :D |
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| Joyce, Kai Sen & I :D |
After downing cocktails and our sambal and stir-fried sotong, we all retreated into the biggest room we had (for 4 people) and we began singing random songs. Haha.
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| All of us :D |
We also did that on the first day actually...but it was in my room...the conjoined room. Just took out my guitar and we began singing random songs...even Christian songs :D Our singing was so soothing that it could put Teck Kian to sleep below...HAHAHA!
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| Me & Ching Yee :D |
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| Wei Hong, Gui Ru, Joyce & Shi Min :D |
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| Teck Kian, Pris, Kai Sen & myself :D |
Apart from singing random songs, we also played DRINKING GAME! :D HAHAHA! Chivas with two to three 1.5l bottles of coke + a deck of cards kept us entertained for 2 nights! HAHA!
Not much pictures of us playing drinking game because...we're all too caught up with the game? HAHAHA! It was SUPER FUNNY...the rules we created, the weird actions, etc...the whole run was filled with uncontrollable chuckles and laughter...HAHA!
Anyway, on the last night, our SPOs (Special Project Officers) otherwise known as our bosses presented all of us with a gift of appreciation for our contribution :D
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| Gift of appreciation from laoban & laoban-niang :D |
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| All of us with our' gifts from Pris & Wei Hong :D |
Yup, that was how we spent our nights :D Laughing, playing and singing in our rooms :D By day we snorkeled, by night we "partied"...haha!
The 2 nights passed REAL QUICKLY. Opening our eyes from the previous night of fun and games, I realized IT'S OUR LAST DAY HERE! :(
So, we spent our last day spamming photos at the beach :D
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| Me, Jia Yi, Ching Yee, Kai Sen & Pris :D |
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| Look at Joyce's sexy pose in the background...HAHAHA! |
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| Me, Teck Kian, Shi Min & Wei Hong :D |
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| Me with the 2 SPOs :D Haha... |
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| All of us PF XV! :) |
Apart from random shots, we also took portfolio photos :D My portfolio in Pumpfest XV? A logistics officer together with Chor Seng & Kai Sen :D Wei Hong was previously a logistics officer before he was promoted to SPO. Haha! Here's our log shot :)
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| Kai Sen, Wei Hong, Me & Chor Seng :D |
After the portfolio photoshoot...we continued spamming photos...haha...Now the category is "committee group shots" Haha...
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| PF XV with our ODAC pose by the beach :D |
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| All of us with our "P" for Pumpfest! :D |
We grew tired of normal photoshoots...so what's next? JUMP SHOTS! HAHAHA! We attempted A LOT of jump shots. Haha! The few below are the more successful ones...LOL.
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| Mei mei's kungfu kick! Haha! |
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| "P" jump shot! :D |
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| ODAC pose jump shot :D |
Yup...that's our short stint in Tioman Island, Paya Beach. I wouldn't mind staying a few more days snorkelling and spamming underwater photos. Haha.
Snorkeling is like my NEW LOVE :D HAHA! Pedaling idly in the seawater as we allow our gaze to wander on the ocean floor is a wonderful feeling :)
Seeing the sun rays pierce through the water and reflecting colourfully off a fish's body that's elegantly and serenely swimming in the water with the lazy corals swaying on the sea floor in the background simply fills me with a sense of awe and wonder.
Snorkeling gives me that kind of feeling...An inquisitive sense of wonder. And that feeling reminds me that life is beautiful.
It's like you're admiring a breath-taking masterpiece that's meticulously put together by a skilled craftsman and all you can do is go "WOWWWWW, SO BEAUTIFUL"
And life and all of nature is indeed a breath-taking masterpiece, meticulously put together by a skilled craftsman by which philosophers call "God".
That innate ability to feel a sense of awe, a sense of amazement and wonder is an indication that we recognize designed beauty. It's an in-built indicator in our human system that tells us there is a Creator, that there is such a thing called "beauty".
Sorry, but the philosopher / worshipper in me just surfaced as I think about the beautifully pristine underwater landscape. Haha. This is one of the reasons why I remain a firm theist.
Yes, I do acknowledge the possibility of evolution, natural selection, etc...But it takes someone to put these mechanisms into place. A system of natural selection and evolution doesn't just spring up from nowhere.
Who created electrons, protons, neutrons, cells, etc...for these processes to work on? These materials (building blocks of life) can't appear out of nowhere.
There must first be someone to create the materials for the processes to work on. And then it still takes another someone to put them altogether or to at least program an algorithm to make use of the physical laws to put together all these material to create life.
I could go on and on and silence every atheist but my main point here is...We innate ability to automatically recognize beauty and craftsmanship indicates that we appreciate intelligent design.
OK, I'm shutting down the philosopher Jonavan......
YUP, had a fantastic trip with Pumpfest XV :D Sadly, that's our last retreat as a committee together :( :'(
Well, the friendships we've built and the memories we share through this journey together will certainly last a lifetime :)
That marks the end of me being an official logistics officer in Pumpfest XV :( Oh well, once an ODAC-er, always an ODAC-er :D Haha! Long live NTU ODAC! LOL!
